


Think Blue. Think Freedom.

by antidons (Pogniscrow)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Doyoung is a wizards, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Taeyong is a hunter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 04:36:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16549016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pogniscrow/pseuds/antidons
Summary: In the darkness, Taeyong discovers Doyoung





	Think Blue. Think Freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Blossom. I don't know if this is your thing, but Belated Happy Birthday.

“We have to get out of here.”

Doyoung looks at Taeyong straight in the eyes, his stare lingering at the half-elf far longer than needed, “Thank you for reminding me, here I was thinking we were to spend the rest of our lives here, in this cave full of corpses.”

Taeyong scoffs and surveys the walls around them, searching for some semblance of moisture or life.

“You really can’t teleport us out of here?” he asks Doyoung, though he already knows the answer.

Doyoung doesn’t even spare Taeyong a glance as he starts mapping his way through the darkness, “Maybe if this entire place didn’t stink of ancient anti-magic, maybe,” he says climbing up a pile of rocks, “But if that were the case, I’d leave you here to rot.”

The hunter shakes his head as he trudges behind Doyoung, clearly dismayed at the severity of their situation.

Taeyong thought fighting off an evil necromancer who wanted to turn into a Lich was hard work. However, getting separated from your team and ending up with a wizard you never particularly liked was proving more of challenge than fending off hordes of the undead.

Taeyong is still fatigued from their battle. A huge gash runs the length of his arm and bruises paint the expanse of his back. He was hurtled violently by one of the goons back at the site of their great battle, leaving a considerable dent to his mobility. Doyoung didn’t fare any better, if the ashen remnants of his robes were to go by. The necromancer fired a particularly intense bolt of acid green flames at the wizard almost singing half his body if it weren’t for Sicheng’s quick thinking. (Doyoung did have his rightful revenge not long after when he laid the final hit on the necromancer with an enchanted spear right through the chest.)

However, things get much more complicated after that. Gal’bath, the necromancer, had placed a powerful curse on the cavern in the event of his demise; a transportation circle to be precise. Within seconds, the team of six were thrust into a magical portal, to where they don’t know.

Taeyong wound up in cave with Doyoung immovable darkness complete with insidious anti-magic seals surrounding them, rendering a wizard practically useless.

Doyoung continues forward without sparing Taeyong a glance.

Taeyong doesn’t have anything against Doyoung per se. It’s just that his words often rung too shrill, like cold water running down his back. But more than that, Doyoung is one to stick the rules. Taeyong wasn’t. He flowed through life like reeds of grass, bending to circumstance, abiding by the unending push of life. Doyoung, on the other hand, stands rigid and firm, like a tall oak, abiding by the law like it flowed through his veins. There was no detour in the eyes of Kim Doyoung, only the upright path that must be trodden, no matter how difficult it may be. It unsettles Taeyong.

The others never found it particularly offensive, but they have shared their fair share of squabbles. Yet Doyoung always found a way to weasel himself back into their good graces. He’d even done it to Youngho after a particularly heated debate on risking all their lives to save a kid. It was reckless and could have cost them all their lives, but at the end Youngho hugged Doyoung, because he was always willing to forgive, even if Taeyong was against it.

And even though he had proved to be a capable warrior despite it being his first time, Taeyong was still on the fence.  

It turns out Doyoung was more perceptive than Taeyong gave him credit for. When, on one night, Doyoung came to Taeyong and said, “I know you don’t like me. You don’t have to. I’ll stay out of your way.”

They had never talked ever since.

 “Aren’t you an all-powerful wizard?” Taeyong asks after walking mindlessly for the past half hour. He can normally navigate through the darkness like it was nothing, if his senses were upright, but the miasma flooding the cavern is too thick that it even impeded his ability to see in relative darkness, leaving he and Doyoung straying like lost sheep.

“Can’t you power through this demonic cave?”

Doyoung stops moving, “I can’t.” he says lowly, voice much deeper than it had been during their adventure. The most solemn Taeyong has heard him this entire journey. 

Doyoung was a new addition to their rag-tag team of misfits. It all started when Johnny needed an artifact appraised. It was Doyoung who had the knowledge to decode the deep magics in the bloodstone their leader had found in their last adventure. Doyoung did not ask for gold or diamonds, only an escape; an adventure. Johnny found it odd but was all too happy to agree. Taeyong did not defy even though he was everything but pleased at the addition.

The team had been travelling for over a week before encountering the necromance, and right now Doyoung and Taeyong were now running on the edges of their wits. Taeyong could feel the dull ache of his back getting more pronounced with every step. His body was getting weary with every passing moment and he could see it in the way Doyoung’s dark silhouette leans on the rock.

“The dark magic, it stretches out below us, far deeper than I can see,” Doyoung murmurs as leans on the rock, “It’s harrowing.”

“How do you know?”

Doyoung huffs, “I’ve been probing the area as we went along. I can’t see an end to it.”

“You’ve been using your magic all this time!” Taeyong all but screeches at the wizard. Doyoung had expended so much magic during their fight with necromancer, this was practical suicide.

The wizard reaches deep into his pocket and extracts a glinting stone, the only light permissible in the unbearable dark.

“It’s a Guiding Stone,” Doyoung murmurs, “I made it myself. It allows me to detect magical energies around us.” Doyoung laughs tiredly as he pockets the stone, “It’s been hell. Like wading through mud. The magic, it’s so thick I can barely breathe.” Doyoung pauses as he steadies his body to continue forward.

“I can’t seem to find the end.”

Doyoung thinks that he can hide the smallest hint of fear flitting through the edges of his tongue, but Taeyong knows when there is fear; it’s his favorite weapon.

“How is it functioning?”

Doyoung turns away from Taeyong, “It has stored magic.”

Without another word Doyoung surges forward, but not before hiding the stone with a shaky breath.

Taeyong doesn’t utter a word in response, he had no words of hope left to give. They continue in silence.

At some point in time Taeyong finds his eyes grow weary and his body go numb from exhaustion. He’s truly at the very limits of his powers.

“Have you ever touched the sky?” Doyoung asks suddenly as they climb up the darkness.

Taeyong has. He’s ridden the backs of giant owls, noble eagles, even on a wild gryphon. He has felt the wind rush through his hair like a coursing river; like the sweet lightness of freedom.

“Yes.”

Doyoung pauses as he continues cupping through moist stone, “Must be nice; flying.”

It takes Taeyong by surprise, hearing the softness in his voice, a frailty that he never thought was there.

Taeyong doesn’t know how to answer.

“My tower soared high, so high,” Doyoung says into the dark, “So high I could not see anything below, only the freedom of the open sky. Yet I could never touch it.”

Doyoung sits down suddenly.

“You know I envy you,” Doyoung says quietly, “I envy the freedom your heart has. It must be nice to choose without fear.”

Taeyong doesn’t understand what Doyoung is saying, but he can feel the exhaustion radiating from him, like a swollen muscle, aggravated and used beyond it’s capacity.

“I’m not stupid Taeyong. I know you despise it when I talk. I know my words taste like poison on your tongue. I know it causes you so much anger.” Doyoung almost whispers as his breathe becomes more belabored.

“You’re not the only one. I hate it too.”

Taeyong feels his heart sink at the wizard’s words. There’s so much defeat, so much disappointment in his tone. Like every waking moment of his life had been a failure.

“It feels wretched that even out in this world. This place with no walls to stop me, I feel the most suffocated. That even if my feet can run and my hands can reach, I still cannot learn to fly.”

Taeyong remains silent. Doyoung’s words felt intimate, like they were meant for himself than they were for his companion.

“They stuck me there and called me brilliant. They called me so many beautiful things, but they could never call me free,” Doyoung laments into the air, “So when Youngho came to me all battered and bruised, his left arm still bleeding, I saw my escape. I finally found a way out. A chance to fly.”

Doyoung pauses.

“Yet even then. Even when the winds touched my hair and earth moved beneath my feet, I could not allow myself to leave. I may have left the tower, but still I carried the walls.”

Taeyong feels numb as Doyoung airs his grievances into the silence. There’s a twitching in his chest, the beating of guilt and sadness thrumming through each layer of his skin.

“You sound like you’re dying,” Taeyong says slowly, hoping that Doyoung laughs in response.

It never comes.

“Twenty paces to the east the magic dissipates.” Doyoung says quietly. He’s leaning limply against a rock. One hand moves out of the pocket of his robes as a faint light snuffs out.

 Taeyong feels the last dregs of hope suddenly soar. An escape from their drowsy adventure. An eventual end to their lingering suffering.

“Let’s go. On your feet.”

Taeyong trudges forward as quickly as he feet can take him; ignoring how his muscles are screaming at him to stop. Doyoung remains still. The half-elf bends softly holds Doyoung’s hand.

“The end is near Doyoung. We’re almost there.”

Doyoung takes a difficult breath of stale air.

“My end is near,” Doyoung says, “I can’t move anymore. I used the last dregs of my energy finding the end.”

Taeyong gasps, “You did all that to get out, Doyoung. Now it’s time for you to get out of here.”

In the stillness, Taeyong sees Doyoung shake his head, “Not for me,” he says weakly.

“You.”

Taeyong doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like the sincerity in Doyoung’s words. He doesn’t like the way Doyoung’s tone is tender and fragile and ready to break. It sounds like he’s given the final step of his life to save the person most undeserving of his kindness.

“Doyoung,” is the only thing Taeyong can say.

“I’m not made for this,” Doyoung says reaching for the stone within his robes, “I should have stayed in my tower.  The others are waiting for you.”

Taeyong feels the world cave in as the wizard hands him the Guiding Stone, still warm from when it was used. He feels through it and knows, without a doubt, that this never had energy in it to begin with. Taeyong may not have superior acumen of magic, but he knows the wisdom of energies. Magic flows all around, like tendrils of power dancing about. However, there lies a much deeper, much more powerful energy that no anti-magic spell can negate.

Life.

“Thank Youngho and Sicheng and everyone else. It was the most alive I’ve felt all my life.”

Taeyong shakes his head. He grabs Doyoung and pries him off the rock, maneuvering his body to rest on his back.

“We’re leaving together. You are going to tell all them that you’re never going back to your tower. You’re joining us indefinitely.”

Doyoung laughs tired, “You can’t even accept my act of kindness.”

“You’re not going to sacrifice your life for me. That’s not how things work.”

“How do things work?”

“I bring you to the end of this godforsaken cave and we will get out alive. Both of us.”

Taeyong’s limbs are shaking with every step. Carrying might have been easy if he were well rested, but in his crippled state, it felt like he was carrying a mountain.

“Sounds so heroic. Never though you had it in you.”

Taeyong groans. Doyoung was not making this easier for him. His breathe is short and his limbs feel cold, the pulse of his heartbeat is slow, almost unnoticeable. The touch of death feels more pronounced the longer they stay.

“Doyoung stay awake,” Taeyong wheezes moving slowly through rock and gravel, “Talk like you normally do.”

“But that annoys you,” Doyoung whispers into the back of his neck, “everything I do annoys you.”

“It doesn’t”

If he had the strength, Taeyong is sure that the wizard would have told his head off for lying through his teeth. He only gets an offended scoff as a response.

“Why did you do it?” Taeyong says when Doyoung doesn’t say anything violent in response.

“You deserve to live,” Doyoung murmurs as he clutches desperately onto Taeyong’s neck.

“I don’t understand.”

“You have a lot to offer this world. You, Youngho and the others. You all make this wretched land better,” Doyoung says to the shell of Taeyong’s ear. He sounds tired but satisfied when he talks.

“You may not think that I have a good heart, but I don’t think the same of you. I know your heart is in the right place. You just don’t show it in the way I expect you to.”

Taeyong doesn’t really know what to say. Not when Doyoung is saying so many things that defeats any and every negative thought Taeyong had ever thought of him. He feels guilt like a newly torn wound that traces from the base of his neck to the small of his back.

“You’re not dying here.”

“That’s awfully pompous of you.”

“I’m an adventurer. I run away from death all the time. And that applies to you too, I’ll teach you how to be an escapist.”

“I never knew you had a sense of humor.”

Taeyong smiles despite himself. Taeyong feels like there’s hope that’s blooming deep within his chest. Like soft embers of a waning fire finding new timber to blaze through once more. His feet are lighter and his suddenly the weight of Doyoung doesn’t feel as heavy as it felt.

“We’re here.” Doyoung says.

Sure enough, the cavern suddenly comes to light, the cave forming into faint figures of foreboding grey.

“Doyoung, we made it. We’re out.”

Taeyong expect something. Doyoung says nothing.

The hunter turns his head and sees Doyoung’s delicate features outlined in the darkness. His eyes are closed, head leaning limply on Taeyong’s shoulder.

Taeyong drops the wizard on the ground and tries to shake Doyoung awake, “Doyoung, wake up.”

“I can’t move,” Doyoung whispers, voice barely audible. Taeyong can’t accept this.

He has so many things that he has to say. He must tell Doyoung that he has so many more misadventures with them. He still must fire bolts of lightning so close to Youngho’s face their leader’s hair stand. He still has to teach Sicheng how to cook potatoes how they do it in the city, because Sicheng doesn’t know how to cook to save his life. He still needs to enchant Mark’s armor like he promised.

Taeyong still has to thank him for risking his life to get them out of that treacherous cave. Tell him that he is not worthless. Tell him that he has done so many things and will do many more amazing things in the future. That he offers so much beauty to this sad world that Taeyong was too ignorant to see. Tell him that he’s free.

Taeyong holds Doyoung, hoping that the warmth he gives can make everything better.

“Stay with me, okay.” Taeyong says, “You’re not going to die. As long as I breathe, I’m not letting you die.”

It’s a futile plea. Taeyong can barely move, let alone save Doyoung from their cold prison.

“Hey, what are you thinking of?” Taeyong asks in the most even tone he can muster even though his heart feels like it’s about to break.

Doyoung doesn’t say anything, but his breathe is still there. It’s faint, but it’s undeniably there.

“You should think of the sky,” Taeyong murmurs, “Think of the sky. Think of freedom Doyoung. Right now, you’re not in a cold, dark cave with the person who is failing you. You’re in the sky. You’re free.”

Doyoung takes a breath, deep and purposeful. Then, with a broken huff, he exhales the tensions that filled every fiber of his body.

Taeyong too closes his eyes, thinking of the rush of fresh air against his skin and the freedom of freefall. He thinks of blue. Deep blue.

Then black.

\--

“Taeyong!”

The hunter startles awake to the deep blue of a cloudless sky. He’s under a tree, elm if he wasn’t mistaken, and it was closing to high noon by the position of the sun above him. The breeze is soft and languid as it breathes past the short grass of the meadow they have settled into.

His arms are empty, no dying wizard cradling against his chest. No shallow breath gasping for life. Taeyong looks up to see Doyoung standing in front of him, eyes curious and undeniably alive.

“Are you okay?” Doyoung asks concerned, he reaches his hand out and touches Taeyong’s skin.

Taeyong is running a cold sweat, his undershirt drenched from untold fear.

“It happened again.”

Doyoung furrows his eyebrows as he kneels down to sit next to Taeyong, “What happened again?”

“The cave.”

It still haunts Taeyong, the memory of the day he almost lost Doyoung.

The wizard leans in and places a gently kiss on his temple, “I’m here, okay. I’m here.” Taeyong softens at Doyoung’s touch. It’s been two years since the day Youngho and Sicheng found the two of them, Taeyong on the verge of fainting and Doyoung on the verge of death. Taeyong still carries the guilt of failing Doyoung. By some magic of fortune, Taeyong eventually came to love Doyoung, more than he would ever have known. They found it each other in the odd dance of life. In between slaying fiends and demons they found love.

Doyoung’s fingers dance against the edges of Taeyong’s cheeks, “It’s over now, just think of blue skies and freedom.” Doyoung does that, says the words Taeyong told him all those years ago, says them like it’s the last breath he can muster. It’s the words they use to keep sane, and for the most part, it works.

However, today it doesn’t, not when his heart beats in such intense fear, not when he feels like everything is still a dream. Now, he needs to touch. To feel the life, the energy still flowing through Doyoung’s veins.

He raises his palm and places it on top of his heart. Doyoung is surprised for a moment until his hands keeps Taeyong’s own close to his chest.

“Feel it,” Doyoung whispers, “It beats because of you.”

Taeyong takes inhales then exhales. Deeply. Purposefully.

He opens his eyes and sees Doyoung, bright, beautiful, staring at him with love. Unadulterated love. Taeyong opens his eyes and sees freedom.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is. I don't know what this is. It might become a series. It might not. 
> 
> direct all concerns to my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/doyoungsupreme) and [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/doyoungsupreme)
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated. Thank you.


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